Method of treating animal hair for manufacturing felt



v Uivrrsn TATES smote.

PATENT METHOD OF TREATING ANIMAL HAIR FOR MANUFACTURING FELT.

I SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 254,211, dated February 28, 18 82. 7 Application filed December 3, 1881. (Specimens) .To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, GEORGE JnNs GREGER- SON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Millburn, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and Im proved Method of Treating Animal Hair, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has for its object to obtain from the coarse hair of wild fur bearing animalssnch as. beaver, otter, nutria, rabbits, &c.which heretofore has been considered of no commercial value'and entirely unfit for sizing, a product possessing all the character istics of the fine fur from said animals which now is exclusively used in manufacturing fur hats. The method by which this is accomplished consists in submitting the hair to the action of a mixture of chemical ingredients, whereby their combined action upon the horny substance that binds the different fibers of which the hair is composed together changes the several salts of which it consists into chlorides, which are dissolved by said chemicals, such as alum, muriatic acid, and a mixture of nitric acid and mercury, or their chemical equivalents, which have the character to form chlorides and nitrates with muriatic and nitric acid-as, for instance, soda, lithium, copper,- and tin, &c.'in fact, such as will be equiva.

lent to serve the purpose for which my invention is intended.

To carry my invention into effect, I proceed in the following manner: I fill a suitable open vessel three-fourths full of water, which by means ofsteam or fire is brought to boiling. Into the boiling water I then mix for each one hundred pounds of hair to be treated a composition of eight pounds commercial alum, twelve pounds muria-tic acid, and a mixture of four ounces of mercury, eight ounces of nitric acid, and two ounces of water, which has been left standing for twelve hours.

The above-named composition of chemicals is stirred well with the boiling water, and then the hair is thrown into the vessel and the whole left boiling. After six to eight hours, when the phosphates of lime, silicates, 850., which form the binding substance between all the fibers of which the hair is composed, have been changed into different chlorides and dissolved, the liquid is drawn ofi", when the hair will be found to havechanged its tubularform into partly-connected, straight, pliable, and partly-split fibers. A mixture of water and ammonia-four pounds of ammonia to every one hundred pounds ofhair heated'to a temperature of 180 Fahrenheit, is now poured over the product obtained by the above-described process and the whole left standing. In one to two hours the ammonia has neutralized the acids left in the hair by the first operation and the vesselis emptied. The material is then passed through a wringer and afterward dried by steam or .other means. When perfectly dry the material obtained is disintegrated by suitable machinery to effect the separation of the by the chemical process not yet disconnected fibers, and a product equivalent to natural for at present used in manufacturing fur hats is obtained.

Having fully described my invention, Iclaim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. The herein-described process of treating the coarse hair of wild fur-bearing animals, such as hereinbefore specified, with a mixture of alum, muriatic acid, and a composition of a mixture of nitric acid and mercury, or their equivalents, and neutralizing with ammonia, substantially as herein described, and for the purpose described and set forth.

2. The changing of the tubular form of the coarse hair of wild fur-bearing animals, such as heretofore has been considered of no commercial value and entirely unfitfor sizing, into straight, pliable, and partly-split fibers by boiling them in a solution of alum, muriatic acid, and a mixture of nitric acid and mercury, or their equivalents, substantially as described,- and' for the purpose described and set forth.

3. The changing of the tubular form of the coarse-hair of wild fur-bearing animals, such as heretofore has been considered of no commercial value and entirely unfit for sizing, into straight, pliable, and partly-split fibers by boiling them in a solution'of alum, muriatic acid,

and a mixture of nitric acid and mercury, or

their equivalents, drawing ed the liquid and neutralizing with ammonia, substantially as described, and for the purpose described and set forth.

4. The changing of the tubular form of the coarse hair of wild fur-bearing animals, such as heretofore has been considered of no commercial value and entirely unfit for sizing, into mals, such as herein described and specified, straight, pliable, and partly-splitfibersby boiltreated and changed into straight, pliable fine ing them in a solution of alum, muriatic acid, fibers of different lengths, as herein described, and a compound of nitric acid and mercury, or and for the purpose described.

5 theirequivalents,drawingolftheliquid,neutral- 6. The new product obtained as above sub- 15 izing with ammonia, and disintegrating with stantially described.

suitable machinery into a product equivalent GEORGE J ENS GREGERSON. to the natural in at present used in manufac- Witnesses: turing fur hats, substantially as described. CHARLES H. SMITH, 1o 5. The coarse hair of wild fur-bearing aui- JOSHUA M. AYERS. 

